Rather than sacrifice quality you may find a nearby greenhouse or produce supplier who can get you a better deal on the better growing media. For the amount of material you use you could save lots by shopping around. Stop at a few local bedding plant growers and ask them where they buy their media. If you know others in your same situation you could join together to place a larger order for even greater savings.

You will find that the markup is fairly high at the local stores, even Walmarts, Sams Clubs and Lowes. But every once in a while they have a year end clearance on these seasonal commodities. I've already purchased pallets of planting media at auctions at great savings. You could make and sterilize your own media but I doubt you will enjoy that endeavor. Better to ask around.

Lynn,

I get my Premier ProMix BX at my local Agway store in 3.8 cubic foot compressed bales. It is much more economical that way than buying the loose product in plastic sacks.

You do have the inconvenience of having to "fluff up" the compressed material before putting it in a pot, but I do that right in the opened bale with a small aluminum hand fork that has rather blunt points on its tines. It does a good job of loosening the compressed product without puncturing the plastic bag of the bale.

I just loosen the material as I need it, so the unused product remains compressed and doesn't take up a lot of space.

MM

I buy a 4 cubit foot bag of vermiculite and a 2.2 peat moss and mix together. A little over 20 bucks.
James

James, The biggest problem with your process is the pH. Most growing media are peat based but the acidic peat is neutralized with limestone. The BX suffix that Maineman (and myself) buys has fertilizer added as well. You can get media with water retainer or even probiotic additives.

My point is that for you to mess with adding all the fine ingredients and mixing would be a time consuming and dirty chore. I don't own the equipment to insure proper testing and mixing either. And although I'll add perlite or vermiculite to my ready mixed media on occasion, The reasons are different.

I ordered 10 bales (3.8 cu ft) of the Promix BX from a local supplier and I believe the per bale price was $15.50.
I also ordered 30 bales of peatmoss which I intend to spread in my greenhouses (~$9.80 per bale). Comparing prices you might think you could save $ by mixing your own media but then who do you blame when your seedlings perform poorly?

E&R seed, 1356 E 200 South, Monroe Indiana is a good place to check. You can pick up your order with them, but the only bad part is they only have a message phone because they're amish. They carry all the promix line.You can call and ask for a catalog. Nice people. I live in Muncie, but sometimes drive up there for supplies.
phone 866-510-3337 fax 715-265-7004

bmoser-that is a great price for Promix!! I buy about 300 bales (compressed) a year, and the cheapest I could get Promix for is like $20-23/bale. I was going to suggest trying another company that makes the soiless peat based mixes like Sunshine, Berger or fafard. They are the same as Promix-but cheaper. I am using Sunshine right now and I like it-they really are all the same. I could never figure out why the regular Promix ( not the new kinds with the fungicides added) was always more expensive and no sales rep could ever tell me.
bmoser is correct-straight peat has a PH of about 4 and the soiless mixes have a PH of about 6.2 or so because of the slow release lime additive. They also have a wetting agent that allows the mix to absorb water immediately and peat by itself is really hard to get to retain water. If you are going to go to the trouble of germinating your own seeds-then it would be crazy not to use the soiless mixes. Another reason to use them is that after seeds germinate-its really important to come off the water some and peat mixes drain so well. Potting soil doesn't and thats where people get in trouble with damping off fungus

Here's a recipe used for conifer propagation of cuttings:

Three 4 cu. ft. bags of perlite to:
One 4 cu. ft. bag of peat, then:
Mix in 6 lbs. of Osmocote plus 1/4 lb. of Micromax.

Dax

Here's my method:

For seed starting: peat & perlite or vermiculite (no fertilizer please); or jiffy 7's.

For growing beds: peat & perlite and/or vermiculte & compost (with foliar application of, or added to watering, any additional nutrients, as needed only.)

For direct seeding in growing beds: peat/perlite/compost blend in beds with a peat/perlite layer on top. Any fertilizer to be added after plants have grown some true leaves.

Peat, perlite, vermiculite and osmocote. I have agressive and healthy sproutlings. I mix mine in a small trash can with my hand shovel. Works like a charm.

A note of caution-if you use straight peat, and mix it with the perlite, vermiculite-your PH is going to be very low-about 4 to 4.5. The soiless mixes have a slow release lime in them to combat the low PH of the peat, and the PH of the mixes is in the low 6's, which is much more compatible with the PH needs of most plants.
I also think that it is harder to control the amt of fert that a seedling ( or small plant) gets with a slow release. I prefer to use a liquid fert where I can control the ppm ( strength) of the fert, and gradually increase as the plants roots develop. I fert once a week. Also keep in mind that Osmocote doesn't release under 70 degree soil temps. Which means that you need air temps over 70 to maintain that soil temp. Everytime that you water with cold water, it takes about 6 hrs to go back to the soil temp that it was before watering.

good points. I guess I needed to include the fact that I start seeds on a heat mat in a climate controled space and only use room temp water. :o)